Voice Searches in 2019 and 2020 – Is the Hype Correct?

Every time you look at what is the next big thing SEO, the most frequently answered option is Voice Searches.

From Google’s webinars, new updates, Google Webmaster personnel everyone talks about voice searches and how the websites should start to focus on these searches.

Currently, as there is a lack of data for Voice searches, we have seen Google serving the top Organic result as the answer for that Voice search.

The Ultimate question is – Is anyone currently or even in the near future will look for information via voice search?

I for one believe that it is not going to happen anytime soon, it may pick up by the year 2023 but till then it is just going to be on a basic level.

Any content that is created now or even in the next 2 years will be outdated until the time voice searches pick up.

I truly feel that the only content or data that should be in key focus should be Local SEO, this is where we will see major things happening on the voice search front.

How should you target Voice Searches if you have to?

If you are still keen on targeting voice searches, your best bet is to target it via the FAQ. Using Google’s new QA schema one should try to answer the voice queries related to their website.

Do remember to use responsive images in your content and if possible offer video content on the same.

Title of your page is going to be an important element as your Title tag has to use the natural flow of language in which a user asks a query.

Is the Hype correct?

I do not think so; I know many digital marketers will not agree with me, however, at this time Google, Amazon, and a few other key players want to sell their hardware which is voice based. These key players are not using any third party data for their devices and are powering searches from their own database.

Even for the mobile-based voice searches Google has never shared any data officially, any data out there is an estimation and on assumption basis only.

Most big companies are assuming that voice searches will power 50% of all searches on Google, ask yourself this as an active user of Google on both desktop and mobile how many times you have used voice searches to find the Life Insurance or best doctor for cardiology.

Even when some website claims that there were billions of searches in 2018, the questions remain what are those queries and how much volume do they have?

One thing, which we have learned in SEO & PPC, is to target keywords with volume. If no volume comes from the keyword it will never drive any traffic.

So till the time, we do not have enough data on hands we have to keep a balance and should not go after voice searches by what others are saying on assumptive data.

After reading this, should you stop focusing on Voice searches?

I really feel this is the right time to experiment with voice searches, as Google is doing however, you should not dedicate a heavy amount of resources to it.

Track the behavior of users for the content you generated and see how well it is performing. Anytime you see good push around it that is when you need focus more on it.

Keep an eye on the latest updates on Voice searches and continue to test and try with it.